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Last updated on 2024-02-02.

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Benjamin Black

Curriculum Vitæ

I am a PhD student currently working within the ValPar.CH project as part of the research group Planning of Landscape Urban Systems (PLUS) at ETH Zürich.

Education

Doctor of Civil Engineering

ETH Zürich

Zurich, Switzerland

Oct. 2020 - Present

MSc in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management (MESPOM)

Central European University, University of Manchester, Lund University, University of the Aegean

Hungary, Greece, UK

Sep. 2018 - Jun. 2020

Award: Outstanding academic achievement (highest GPA in cohort: 4.00/4.00)

BSc with 1st Class Honours in Biological Sciences

Edinburgh Napier University

Edinburgh, Scotland

Sep. 2010 - Jun. 2014

Awards: University medal (highest average mark on degree route); Lawrence Ho student prize; Dennis Aw award.

Professional Experience

Project Manager & Volunteer Co-ordinator

Elephant Livelihood Initiatives and Environment (E.L.I.E)

Mondulkiri, Cambodia

April. 2015 - June. 2017

Activities: Managed a diverse team (Bunong Indigenous minority, and Khmer) of 48 staff. Oversaw the operation of an ecotourism project receiving 4000+ visitors a year. Facilitated ongoing capacity building of staff and development of the volunteer program. Compiled budgets, handled cash flow to staff and submitted detailed financial reports. Produced reports for the board of directors and Cambodian government. Developed relationships with other environmental and conservation organisations in the region.

Student Affairs Manager

The School for Field Studies Center for Conservation and Development Studies in the Lower Mekong

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Jan. 2018 - Aug. 2018

Activities: Coordinated safety and risk management as well as logistics for all centre activities including multi day field trips to remote locations in Cambodia and Vietnam. Medical ‘point person’, facilitated first aid training for staff. Performed pastoral role: ensuring student well-being, resolving group management issues and facilitating cultural adaptation.

Biodiversity and SMART Intern

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Jul. 2019 - Aug. 2019

Activities: Produced protected area species inventories in line with Darwin Core standards utilising OpenRefine, R scripting and API services to expedite the collection of external data from the IUCN, EDGE ranking and CITES. Assisted in the training of new community biodiversity rangers in the process of SMART data collection in the field.

Workshop Experience

Reproducible Research with R and Quarto: Workflows for data, projects and publications

Three hour workshop as part of Landscape 2024 conference

Berlin, Germany

Sep. 2024

Awards

NAture-positive SCenarios for ENvironmental Transitions: Peru (NASCENT-PERU)

Swiss Re Foundation

Zürich, Switzerland

Jun. 2023

Funded project under the SwissRE Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Scenarios Modelling Initiative

Oral communications

My Journey To Transparency And Reproducibility

R Lille (rlille.fr)

Online (Lille, France)

Apr. 2021

My Journey To Transparency And Reproducibility (French)

Min2Rien (www.min2rien.fr)

Online (Lille, France)

Apr. 2021

“Débuter” avec R en Commençant par le Début … (French)

R Lille (rlille.fr)

Lille, France

Jan. 2021

Jointly Modelling SNPs With Survival & Longitudinal Trait

A Statistical Seminar Applied on Type 2 Diabetes
(Host: Pr. Paul Franks)

Lund, Sweden

Jan. 2019

Jointly Modelling SNPs With Survival & Longitudinal Trait

Thematic Day “Statistic & Genomic”
of the “Réseau Interdisciplinaire
autour de la Statistique”
(RIS) (ris.cnrs.fr)

Paris, France

Oct. 2018

Longitudinal Genetic Modelling: Revisiting Associations of SNPs Associated With Blood Fasting Glucose in Normoglycemic Individuals

Statistical Methods for Post Genomic Data
(SMPGD) (math.univ-lille1.fr/~celisse/SMPGD)

Lille, France

Feb. 2016

Publications

Epigenome-Wide Association Study Reveals Methylation Loci Associated With Offspring Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Exposure and Maternal Methylome

NULL

N/A

Sep. 2021

Diabetes Care

As first or co-first author.

: an R package for quality control of NanoString nCounter data

Mickaël Canouil, Gerard A Bouland, Amélie Bonnefond, Philippe Froguel, Leen M ’t Hart and Roderick C Slieker

N/A

Feb. 2020

Bioinformatics

As first or co-first author.

Laser capture microdissection of human pancreatic islets reveals novel eQTLs associated with type 2 diabetes

NULL

N/A

Jun. 2019

Molecular Metabolism

As first or co-first author.

Increased Hepatic PDGF-AA Signaling Mediates Liver Insulin Resistance in Obesity-Associated Type 2 Diabetes

NULL

N/A

Jul. 2018

Diabetes

As first or co-first author.

Jointly Modelling Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms With Longitudinal and Time-to-Event Trait: An Application to Type 2 Diabetes and Fasting Plasma Glucose

Mickaël Canouil, Beverley Balkau, Ronan Roussel, Philippe Froguel and Ghislain Rocheleau

N/A

Jun. 2018

Frontiers in Genetics

As first or co-first author.

Low-dose exposure to bisphenols A, F and S of human primary adipocyte impacts coding and non-coding RNA profiles

Marie Verbanck, Mickaël Canouil, Audrey Leloire, Véronique Dhennin, Xavier Coumoul, Loïc Yengo, Philippe Froguel and Odile Poulain-Godefroy

N/A

Jun. 2017

PLOS ONE

As first or co-first author.

Expression and functional assessment of candidate type 2 diabetes susceptibility genes identify four new genes contributing to human insulin secretion

NULL

N/A

Jun. 2017

Molecular Metabolism

As first or co-first author.